Just Like Billy
by Dana Doggett
Summary: Dana Scully wonders about who John Doggett lost "just like Billy."


Title: Just Like Billy

Author: Dana Doggett

Date: 31 January 2014

Distribution: Semper Fi. All others please ask.

Rating: PG

Category: Doggett/Scully (partnership, friendship)

Timeline: After "Invocation"

Beta: Little Albatross

Summary: Dana Scully wonders about who John Doggett lost "just like Billy".

Author's Note: This is my response to the SHODDS 2014 "Invocation" fanfic challenge. This is the first fanfic I've written in four years, please be gentle with it, I'm rather rusty in the creative writing department.

Disclaimer: I do not own "The X-Files", Dana Scully, John Doggett, Walter Skinner, or any other characters that you recognize from "The X-Files" TV series or movies. "The X-Files" and related characters are owned by 20th Century Fox Broadcasting, and Ten-Thirteen Productions.

"You lost someone, just like Billy."

Dana Scully stands in the elevator heading up to the third floor of the J. Edgar Hoover Building. She closes her eyes and shakes her head, trying to rid her mind from hearing Sharon Pearl's words echoing over and over, days after the Underwood case in Dexter, Oklahoma came to a close. Perhaps her curiosity is due to being an expectant (worried, paranoid, concerned) mother, maybe it stems from having heard Mulder tell stories of his sister's disappearance for so many years. At best, all she can figure is that her new partner, John Doggett, lost a child "just like Billy."

This revelation was a punch in the stomach. Ever since Mulder's disappearance she had behaved as if she were the only person in the world who had lost someone close to her. It surprised her that Doggett lost someone too, and now she felt bad for treating him terribly during the case.

The elevator doors open, and Scully steps out into the hallway. She feels all eyes are on her, and have been since Mulder's alleged alien abduction four months ago. She is not deaf to the whisperings in the FBI hallways: Agent Scully was a suspect, were she and Agent Mulder involved?, Mrs. Spooky is paired up with a straight-laced partner who could be hell bent on helping Deputy Director Kersh's agenda: close the X-Files once and for all.

Without making eye contact with anyone, Scully holds her head high and enters Assistant Director Skinner's office. His assistant, Arlene, greets her and tells her it is all right to enter his office, he is on his way back from a meeting with the Deputy Director. Scully opens the office door and sees Doggett is already there, ready for this afternoon's debriefing.

"Agent Scully." John Doggett greets her as she makes her way to the chair next to him.

"Agent Doggett."

She sits down and greets him with a smile. She can look him in the eye-he does not judge her, he does not take part in the FBI rumor mill. His eyes are deep, saying so much about his person, yet saying so little. He is a mystery to her.

On their first case together they did not stay up all night talking about the loss in his life, as she and Mulder did. The only personal thing she knows about him is that he lost someone "just like Billy," and a psychic brought this to light, not John Doggett himself.

"just like Billy," there it is again, repeating again in her head. She looks at her partner as he sits there with his hands in his lap. He's unreadable.

"John..." she turns toward him, hesitating to use his first name, "May I ask you a personal question?"

He turns his head to look at her and grins, "By all means."

"Sharon Pearl, the psychic in the Underwood case... she uh... she said that you lost someone..."

Doggett stiffens noticeably in his seat, taking a deep breath, not once redirecting his eyes from hers.

"I'm sorry, Agent Doggett," she addresses him professionally now, "nevermind."

She looks away from him towards the office door, hoping A.D. Skinner will walk through it to change the topic. He does not.

"You don't need to apologize, Dana," he uses her first name to let her know it is all right to talk to him as a person and not always as her partner, "if you hadn't brought it up, I would have eventually."

Scully looks at him, her eyes lock with his. He is sincere.

"I know that you and I don't talk much outside of our case load." He pauses, knowing that talking about personal matters can change the dynamics of a professional relationship. He sees by her expression that she is curious about him, even if her curiosity is about the worst time in his life. He reaches into his pocket and retrieves his wallet, opening it to Luke's picture. He hands it to Scully, who takes it gently in her hand.

"His name was Luke."

He smiles as he watches Scully caress the picture with her thumb just as he always does.

"He went missing for three days back in ninety-three. I was with the police department back then. The FBI missing persons task force couldn't stop me from helping out, and I was there with them when they found 'im in a field. He'd been dead for only a couple hours." His jaw tightens. "His killer was never caught and the case went cold. Now and again I dust it off and try to look at it with fresh eyes, but nothin's there that I haven't seen before."

He shakes his head with regret, then looks at Scully.

"Knowing what I know now, I should have requested Agent Mulder's assistance in the case. Had him look at the list of suspects, profile them and figure out who took my son's life, and why. Maybe if I had done that Luke would have been saved, or at the very least this case would be closed, his killer behind bars. I had heard of Mulder back then, by reputation. He was the best the BSU had to offer, and if he could have helped then..." his voice trails off thinking of one more thing he could have done to save his son.

Scully looks down at the picture of Luke, and her heart breaks. If they were not sitting so far apart she would be at his side to comfort him. She would expect tears just as Mulder had shed when he was told of his mother's death just last year, but Doggett is no Mulder.

He remains silent. He sheds no tears.

The door to the office opens and Skinner enters.

"Agents, thank you for coming this afternoon," the Assistant Director's voice drowns out as Scully thinks about how she would like to take a look at Doggett's son's case file.

Scully found herself sitting in her car across the street from Doggett's house that night instead of driving straight home. As she watched him through his front window, she couldn't help but think about Mulder. If she had brought up Samantha's disappearance, he'd be doing something, anything he could to dig up more truths or conspiracies surrounding her case.

But John Doggett was different, just sitting alone, watching the evening news. He does not obsess with his son's cold case. He can talk about it and life returns to normal.  
>What drives Doggett to come to work every day? Why does he not try to get reassigned to a division more suited to his beliefs and interests? He was on the fast track to the Directorship before Kersh tossed him down in the basement. Mulder's obsession with finding out what happened to his sister drove him to work every day, and made him an outcast, but not John Doggett. He takes life hit-by-hit, not letting tragedy control him.<p>

Scully looks down at the passenger seat beside her where she placed Luke Doggett's case file she pulled earlier in the day. She and John may not be as close as she would like, but she owes it to him to at least look at the case in the hope of seeing something that could lead to an arrest and closure.

She places her hand on her abdomen, feeling movement from her unborn child. She has felt the grief of losing loved ones (Ahab, Melissa), and she wishes she did not fear for the life of the child inside her (please God let my child be normal). She aches to trust her new partner, and maybe now that she knows of his life's tragedy, it will be easier to see him as a human being rather than a threat to the X-Files.

The child inside her moves again, tickling her. She stifles a laugh as she wipes a tear from her cheek.

Her heart jumps when she sees John stand up and look out his window at her car. She does not want him to see her so she puts the car into drive and heads home. Before turning off his street she glances down at the case file on the passenger seat.

Kidnapped. Molested. Murdered.

"just like Billy."


End file.
